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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26837326">I will protect you</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mony_Writes/pseuds/Mony'>Mony (Mony_Writes)</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Newsies - All Media Types, Newsies!: the Musical - Fierstein/Menken</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Comfort, Gen, based on livesies, refereces to the strike/brawl</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-10-05</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-10-05</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 12:22:17</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,173</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26837326</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mony_Writes/pseuds/Mony</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Davey comforts Les after a nightmare about the strike and they both talk. </p><p>----</p><p>These boys need more love, and I will give it to them.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>David Jacobs &amp; Les Jacobs</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>7</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>20</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>I will protect you</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Come talk/prompt me over on my Tumblr @wide-eyed--wonderer !! And, as always comments/feedback are welcomed and appreciated!!</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“Da- Dave- Davey - DAVID”</p><p>Davey shot up and was at his brother’s side in an instant. Les talking in his sleep was incredibly unusual, so naturally, it had woken Davey up. He’d intended to just let it play out, but then he’d heard his name and all bets were off.</p><p>“Les, Les, hey, I’m here.. Shh wake up” Les didn’t seem to be herding Davey, we just kept thrashing and turning, tangling himself in his sheets. </p><p>“Stop.. please..” Les whimpered. Seeing that gentle attempts weren’t working, Davey leaned over and shook Les’ leg. </p><p>“Les -” the boy in question sat up in a blink, eyes wide and frantic before landing on Davey and throwing himself into his big brother’s side. </p><p>Davey, who had not been expecting Les to wake up, let alone charge and him, fell onto the floor but managed to manoeuvre himself into a sitting position with his brother on his lap. </p><p>“Hey, hey Les,” Davey held the shaking boy, murmuring into his ears, “what’s wrong, talk to me.” Davey began rubbing his hands in circles on Les’ back, before starting to trace letters on his back. </p><p>I-T-S O-K</p><p>Eventually, the shaking subsided, and Les moved his fingers to Davey’s chest. </p><p>N-I-G-H-T-M-A-R-E</p><p>“Oh Les,” Davey reached down and kissed his brother’s head. “Do you want to talk about it?” Les nodded his head but didn’t lift it from against Davey’s chest. </p><p>S-T-R-I-K-E</p><p>Davey felt his arms tighten around Les. He’d had his own share of nightmares about the strike, but during that confrontation with the bulls on the first day, he’d lost sight of Les. He’d tried to protect him most of the day, and he kept him by his side, but when the cops had shown up to declare the Newsies targets, it’d been chaos, and Davey had gotten hit in the jaw and told Les to run. He didn’t see Les again until he’d gotten back to the lodging, and both boys were too shaken up to talk about it beyond more than an “I’m ok, your ok.” </p><p>And then everything happened, and neither boy got time in the three months that had passed to talk about the events. </p><p>“Everyone was so big Davey. And…” Les sniffed “… I know you told me to run, but I wanted to help, but then one of them grabbed me, and I think… I think….” Davey shifted, so his back was against the bed, and pressed a kiss to Les’ head, encouraging him to keep talking. “I think Race pulled them off and punched them.”  </p><p>Well, that cleared up why Les seemed to cling a bit closer to Race then he did the other Newsies (aside from Jack) because his brain registered Race as safe. Davey felt his heartbreak and an insurmountable amount of gratitude for Race in that second. If Race hadn’t been there…. Davey didn’t even want to think about it. </p><p>“Then… then Jack came up and he put me in this, container thing, I… I don’t really know what it was, and told me to stay down. And it was safe, but it was too big to get out of on my own, but there were shouting and bulls and I… I couldn’t see you” Les broke out into fresh sobs at that, crashing again into Davey’s chest. Davey let one hand wrap around Les’ waist and brought the other one up to card through his hair. </p><p>“Hey… it’s ok… I’m here, remember. We’re safe… It’s over, they can’t do that again.“ Davey kept mumbling reassurances into Les’ ear and lept tracing on his back.</p><p>S-A-F-E</p><p>Eventually, Le cried himself out and started to talk again. </p><p>“And then.. Someone, someone knocked over the barrel and I was rolling and I didn’t know where I was going and…” Les started sniffing, but Davey froze. </p><p>That was him.</p><p>He hadn’t known Les was in there.</p><p>All he remembered was Jak facing down three bulls alone, and seeing a barrel and just rolling it toward Jack, knocking the bulls out of Jack’s path. Someone else had pulled him into a fight before the barrel had reached Jack. </p><p>How had he not noticed? </p><p>Les didn’t seem to notice Davey spiral and panic and had recovered enough to start talking again.</p><p>“Then it stopped and Jack took me out… and I don’t know what he said, I just started running and I got back to the lodging house and Race was there, and he started bandaging me up but I was still so scared because of you… you weren’t back yet.” And then Les pulled back for the first time since he’d thrown himself into Davey and looked at him in the eyes. </p><p>“And then you were, and it was ok.”</p><p>Davey swallowed, to try and clear his dry throat. There would be time to panic much, much later, to Jack or Sarah about what had happened and a time to thank his friends for looking out for Les. But right now, he needed to comfort his brother.</p><p>“Is that what you dreamed about?” Davey lifted Les’ chin with the tip of his finger so he’d meet his eyes. </p><p>“I guess.” Les shrugged</p><p>“Is…” Davey swallowed, “is this the first time you’ve dreamt about this?”</p><p>“N..no” Davey’s heart broke. </p><p>“Listen to me,” Les ducked his head and started pulling away from Davey. “Hey no, I’m not mad at you” Les stopped and looked at Davey. </p><p>God, Davey had forgotten how young he was. </p><p>“You’re not?” He even sounded so small. </p><p>“Promise, I’m not” Davey smiled as Les crawled closer to him and let Davey wrap his arms around him again. </p><p>“But listen, if this happens again, you have a bad dream about the strike or anything, I want you to wake me up.” </p><p>“But you-”</p><p>“No buts. I’m your big brother. Any bad dream, I’m here to help and fight them away.”</p><p>“But I’m big now. I’m ten. I’m not supposed to have bad dreams or need you to protect me.”</p><p>“Les, everyone has bad dreams.”</p><p>“Even the Newsies?”</p><p>Davey shuddered to think what they Newsies had bad dreams about. </p><p>“Even the Newsies. But they look out for each other, help their brothers out when they have bad dreams. Just like I want to do for you.”</p><p>“Do you have bad dreams, Davey?” </p><p>Davey thought back over the past three months, everything he’d gained, and then almost lost. Everything and everyone he needed to protect now. </p><p>“Of course. And do you know what I do when I have them?” Les shook his head. “I go to talk to Sarah. Or I talk to Jack when I see him in the morning.”</p><p>“So… you wouldn’t be mad if I woke you up because I had a bad dream?” Davey leaned down and pressed a kiss to Les’ forehead.</p><p>“Of course not.” Les curled in tighter to Davey, and with the adrenaline of the night starting to wear off, started to fall asleep. “C’mon. You’re sleeping with me tonight.”</p><p>“Ok. Love you, Davey.” </p><p>“Love you too, Les.”</p>
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